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Haryana Excise and Taxation Department gets tough with VAT evaders

In a move to tighten their noose over those involved in evasion of Value Added Tax (VAT), the Haryana Excise and Taxation Department has now started keeping an eye on the quarterly VAT returns and depositing of VAT in the state.

The department has started keep a watch on the VAT defaulters and has now started recovering not only the VAT evaded but also a considerable amount as fine from such defaulters. During the campaign in this regard, several VAT defaulters have been detected and were made to pay tax and fine.

An official release of the department informed that on Monday, a team of Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner (East) Gurgaon raided the premises of a firm namely Subodh Gupta, located in Gurgaon, after a complaint was received at the Department’s headquarters in Chandigarh. Shyamal Mishra, Excise and Taxation Commissioner sent that complaint to the DETC (East) for enquiry and verification.

According to DETC (East) Samir Yadav, the firm registered in the name of Subodh Gupta had raised a bill of a painting which was sold to Director, National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi at a cost of Rs 2.25 crore on August 28,2015. The VAT amount of Rs 29. 53 lakhs was also taken from the buyer, taking the total to about Rs 2. 55 crores. He said that on checking the records at Director General of Audits, it was found that the seller firm had neither shown the VAT amount in its quarterly returns nor deposited the VAT with the government. A notice was served to the firm in this regard but it did not respond. Therefore, the premises of the firm was raided on Monday. As per rules, if non depositing of VAT by the firm is proved, it will have to not only deposit the entire amount of VAT evaded but also the fine.

The Excise and Taxation Department has become more active following directions from its Minister Capt Abhimanyu who is said to be not so happy with the tax recovery of the department and has pulled up the officers to check evasion in VAT.

The efficiency of the department in last few days is reflected by the cases it has detected during the last week or so. In DETC (East) Gurgaon area alone, apart from the above case two more cases of VAT evasion were caught and the defaulters were made to pay VAT alongwith heavy fine levied on these units during the last one week. According to Yadav, one Dilip Chabaria, who customizes cars and design them according to the owners’ wishes and likes, was found to be not filing VAT returns for last one year. He was caught and Rs 22 lakh were recovered from him as tax and fine. Similarly, Harpreet Motors, a Ford Agency in Sector 34, Gurgaon was also not filing VAT returns for last one year and Rs 2.50 crore were recovered.

The Department hopes to catch more VAT defaulters in near future and the teams are on the job. After the department started working on digitized system, the defaulters fall into the net and it has become easy for the department to catch those who have though taken VAT from the buyers but did not deposit the same with the government, Yadav added.